Sir Steve Redgrave is one of only four Olympians to have won a gold medal at five consecutive Olympic Games and he is often hailed as Britain’s greatest Olympian. As you also all probably know, he’s diabetic; so to have achieved such giddy heights means that he seriously rocks.

Certainly when I was first diagnosed with Type One I found it a comfort that someone could have diabetes and still do so well and I think a lot of diabetics (and, indeed, non diabetics) would agree he’s an inspiration.

Anyway, with all this in mind, your soaraway Shoot Up has blagged an email interview with him and you get to ask the questions. Submit your questions to Sir Steve below and I’ll pick the best ones and we’ll will publish the results in a wee while.

@Tim – I really meant non-diabetic media types – who think they know all there is to know about diabetes cos they’ve read the cover of a book.
better phrased Q: Does it irritate you when the mainstream media bang on…etc

Would Steve be up for giving advice guidance to those teenage pc’s who may of watched Ch4 program last night? We need positive thinking its not really bad having Diabetes! Think of what you could have ?

Any hilarious hypo-based training/competing anecdotes? Rowing round in circles at international championships? Tipping the boat over while reaching for glucotabs to the surprise of teammates? That sort of thing?

Does (did?) he carry masses of hypo stuff thus weighing the boat down? If so- what? If not- why not?! (it’s actually a serious question- I imagine he must have to take preventative measures & I’d be interested to know what they were)

Read a great account by him on RunSweet today about how he’d tamed his D when he was training very intensively (having worried that he may have to give up)

I wonder if he has any opinion of the way Diabetes is treated in the UK. Was he well supported by his clinic, or did he need to get extra help to tackle his demands. Did he work it out as he went along, or get some advice from other specialists/sports-type dieticians/T1 atheletes?

I also wonder, if he had to give one piece of advice to a newly diagnosed diabetic, what would it be?

@ckoei: well, the rowing was short lived due to getting cramp in the bottom of my foot. The role of cox became available, and was by far my preferred position – sitting, watching and shouting (- oh, and steering, navigating the best course, giving instructions and encouragement… am I building up my part sufficiently here??!!)
As for getting to the pub, I try and look cool (and not too keen/alcoholic) by not doing my girly running too much. Just to be on the safe side, I make sure I have supplies of alcohol (and emergency hypo sweeties) at home… probably most hypos occured after consuming too much “Scottish water”

Thanks to Charlie’s “cramp in foot”, I’ve brushed up my non-existent knowledge of rowing – didn’t know about sliding seats and footplates; so for Sir Steve to answer my question, he’s going to have to come out of retirement and do a bit of this

@charlie: Maybe your Scottish water should be accompanied by fat Coke, not by your usual tingy, diet stuff…and is a female coxswain called a henswain? (sounds much more capable of egging on a team )

Scottish water and thin coke has been replace with the aforementioned with Ameretto added, which makes it a Godfather.. very appropriate after the mother of all weeks that I’ve had… (sorry, Sir Steve for infiltrating your questions blog bit..)

@charlie: Such splitting tendencies indicate that you must be related to Roald Da(h)l…hope I didn’t also make you pea

Back to the sober reality of this forum: I’ve noticed that if I go hypo while typing, I start to struggle with keeping my vowels within their consonantal bounds – eg “ready” becomes “erady”; because Sir Steve has had to cope with dyslexia right from the start, is he now “fit” enough and capable of taking a bit of hypo-muddle in his stride, or does it become worse when he’s low? (Great excuse for getting out of bedtime-story-duty )

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Welcome to Shoot Up!

Shoot Up or Put Up is among one of the top 250 diabetes blogs and forums in the United Kingdom.

Written by two professional diabetics, Tim & Alison, the soaraway Shoot Up charts the slings and arrows of the pancreatically challenged hordes.